A/N: Okay! Here's your new chapter: Chapter Twenty-One! t.t wow. and I thought this was going to be a short fic. Seems not, huh? Enjoy!

(Chrono’s POV)

I looked around the tightly packed room and the students that surrounded me, dancing or just milling around talking—or trying to talk over the large amount of noise the crowd was making pushing for Azmaria to sing an encore. Finally I heard a cheer as she gave in, blushing red in the face at all the attention.

A hush fell over the room as she started singing the song I recognized as Angel by Sarah McLachlan. People swayed slowly back and fourth, entranced by her voice. I couldn’t blame them, her voice was truly beautiful. I paused a moment before continuing towards the drink table.

How did Rosette know about all that, anyways? Who’d told her and how come they knew? I blushed as I thought back to the—extremely—close proximity of our faces when she—he—was asking me all those things. I hope I hadn’t given anything away. I did not want to imagine what Rosette would do if she found all that stuff out—it would be disastrous indeed. Maybe I should have told Rosette…? No, that would only get her—him—hurt. Plus, I didn’t know the reason as to why Aion was targeting me yet. He was using the threat of hurting Rosette as a hostage against me. Mother…she had taught me many things I could’ve used...

“Chrono, hey, Chrono!” I heard my name shouted as I just reached the table. I turned in the direction of the voice. Joshua. He was quickly walking towards me. I grabbed a glass and poured myself a drink as he walked over.

“Hey, Chrono, have you seen Rosette yet?” he asked as I was just about to drink the punch. I turned towards him as he spoke, but then looked away as I mumbled, “Yeah…I just talked with—”

“Then do you know where she went?” he asked hastily as he cut me off.

“Um…why?” I questioned. Where would Rosette have gone anyways? I thought she—he!—would be hanging out with Joshua and his buddies.

“I thought I just saw Rosette go out the back door, but when I went to look no one was there.” He said then mumbled something that I almost didn’t catch, “I thought I saw Aion head out that direction, too…” he then turned back towards me and said hastily, “Um, forget it then. If you see Rosette tell her we have to talk, though!” before rushing away.

I brought the drink up to my lip and was just about to take a sip when I took a sharp intake of breath in surprise. Joshua had said he thought he saw Aion heading out there before Rosette! What if he really did?! What if Rosette was out there, to—!

I stopped mid-thought and sniffed the drink. Surely I was mistaken. I sniffed again. Nope, that could only be one thing. I took a sip of the punch. I was right! That was ALCOHOL! Why was the punch spik—wait. Wait, wait, WAIT! Rosette had downed a whole glass of this stuff, I’d seen her, not to mention she—he!—probably had more before—! I rushed towards the back door, trying to dodge the many students along the way.

What if Joshua had been right and had seen Rosette heading out…but that didn’t worry me as much as the fact that he said he thought he saw Aion heading out there, too! I opened the back door and let it close swiftly behind me. I was just about to rush along the trail when I noticed the footprints in the snow. I had no better directions so I decided to follow them, the footprints. There were two sets of footprints, both lightly dusted in a fresh layer of the falling snow.

I was led to the metal gate of the brick wall that separated the school from the shops and allies behind it. The gate stood ajar and was swinging slightly in the light wind. Cautiously I approached the gate. I opened it and slipped onto the other side, not bothering to look back or close it behind me.

I heard distant grunts as I stood on the other side of the gate. I looked left and right. The sounds sounded like they were coming from the right. I walked slowly, cautiously, in that direction. Soon, though, my walk became a frantic run as worst case scenarios ran through my head. Suddenly the image of Rosette falling to the ground in a dark ally way flashed across my vision.

And it wasn’t a dream. I stopped mid-step.

Rosette slowly got back up on her knees and was about to get on her feet when a foot swung and kicked her square in the jaw. As if in slow motion, she fell back onto the snow dusted concrete. Again she tried to get up. This time when she got onto her knees a hand snaked from behind her and gripped her chin tightly, swinging her face towards me.

“Look at who’s come to watch the show, Christopher… Why, if it isn’t sweet little Chrono.” Aion murmured in baby-talk. I hadn’t even noticed that he was here until this moment.

“Ch—Chrono!” She—he—gasped brokenly as she opened her tightly shut eyes. I stood frozen. What was I supposed to do? “Run…” she whispered just loud enough for me to hear. Run? But, what about her? What was she going to do?

Suddenly a four of laughing boys surrounded her. No…this was too much like my dream…how could this be happening…my mind trailed off as I caught sight of a smirking Genai. It-it couldn’t be! I watched as they started to beat Rosette down. It was. This was all planned out to be like my nightmare. As I realized this my anger slowly built into a raging fire.

I walked brokenly towards the group. This was different though; I could stop this! My broken walk turned into a charge as I ran blindly at the one closest to me; I could stop this, right now, right here! I slammed my hand onto the nape of his neck and as he fell onto the ground with a gasp I moved onto the one beside him who had not yet noticed that his buddy had been knocked out.

I bent down onto my knees as I pulled Rosette’s beaten body into my lap, unconscious bodies lying around us. “It—it’s going to be okay…” I murmured to myself, not noticing that Rosette had come to. As I finally noticed, Rosette’s eyes widened as she pushed me off her. I rolled to the side and slowly got to my feet. I heard a grunt behind me and then a sickeningly loud crunch as a whoosh of breath left the body behind me. I quickly turned to see what happened.

I thought that Rosette had pushed me away because she—he!—was angry with me or something. But—I watched as Rosette looked at me with wide open eyes. “Run!” she yelled as she got to her feet. One arm was wrapped around her body as the other swung wildly around her, trying to get anyone that she could. This was when I noticed that there were more people now, surrounding her than before. As before there were only four, now there were at least ten—if not more—including Aion and Genai.

She gasped as she continued to swing at them and miss—they laughed. She looked at me again, “I-I can take care of this!” she gasped out, “Don’t worry, run!” as I continued to stand immobile she screamed, “I-I’ll be right behind you!” I could see the blood slowly dripping from the corner of her mouth. She wiped it away as she continued to swing and kick and miss.

As she was trying to hit another she was tripped and fell to the ground in an audible grunt. It was their turn now. They pinned her hands to each side with their feet as they kicked at her. She grunted and I could hear cracking. Disgustingly, audible cracking sounds and the sound of flesh pounding flesh.

The white snow that fell around us and disappeared into the darkness slowly faded to red as my anger and adrenaline slowly built up. I got to my feet and kicked the guy closest to me behind the knees.

He grunted as he fell and my vision burned red as all else disappeared from my thought but the one about saving Rosette.

I could save Rosette this once, like she’d done for me a just a few moments ago.

I could save her.

--END CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE--

A/N: Yeah, yeah, I know. Very short--only about three or so pages on Microsoft Word. But, hey, it got most of what I wanted covered. I hope you liked it! Tell me what you think: REVIEW!

P.S. oh, yeah, and thanks to all the nice reviewers out there!